Arbitration is a field of study worthy of Hermann Rorschach. Parties who bring to it a preference for the formality and forensic opportunities of litigation see arbitration as the Wild West. Others, who prefer to resolve all business disputes quickly and informally, see it as just another form of litigation. Businesspeople who want to submit disputes to a business-oriented, neutral third party bound by rules that ensure basic fairness, but do not want all the bells and whistles of litigation, see arbitration as a happy medium.
In practice, the parties to a large extent create their own arbitration reality, starting from the time they choose the applicable rules and otherwise construct their arbitration clause, to the time the arbitrators close the hearing.
